Category: Gardening at The Farm

Every year, since I’ve lived here, when Spring arrives I’m all about being outside. I find it hard to stay indoors when the sun is out and it’s 55 or so degrees. Then I want to think up ways to be more “green” in my garden.

Last Year’s Garden

So this year, I felt the need to share with you some of the things I do. Mr. AuntMayme has been drinking a lot of diet soda, as he thinks he’s getting his water intake from that. (This is another topic which might be addressed later, when I’m feeling arrogant and snotty, but I won’t deal with it now). So what to do about the many plastic bottles? Of course, I can take them to recycling, and have done so. But what about folks who don’t have recycling? So watch along with me and you’ll see what to do with them.

Lines on soda bottle

This is your standard soda bottle. Note where the marks are: One is just above the “bubbled” bottom, there is a dashed line about 2″ above that and this area has a vertical solid line, finally there is a solid line about 2″ above that or just where the bottle smooths out. (I don’t want to mention the brand of soda here, because I don’t want to advertise, but let’s just say it’s dark, begins with a P and you can go from there.)

The lines you will cut on. Cut the solid lines going around the bottle first, using a cutter or very sharp knife. Then cut on the dotted line and then cut the vertical solid line. What you will have when you are finished are four pieces: the bubbly bottom, two sort of “collars” with an opening on the side, and the top, which looks like a funnel. SAVE THAT CAP!

These are handy for your garden. Let’s break them down into three uses. First the bubbly bottom. Invert that over seeds you have just planted and you have a really cool cloche/mini greenhouse for starting those seeds early. The sun will warm the inside, creating moisture (think greenhouse here) and will keep those seeds well hydrated during the sprouting.

Mini greenhouses

Next, we’ll jump ahead to the top with the cap. Do a search for the word, “olla”. This is a great watering device used for many centuries to water plants in dry areas. You bury a ceramic vessel with a hole in the top next to your plants and fill the vessel with water. The water dissipates in the soil to water the plants that are near it. This bottle top with a cap is going to be an olla of sorts. The cap is used to keep bugs and debris out, and the bottle top is buried up to the neck.

Bottle necks buried in soil

Because the upper part of the bottle is cut off, you can get more water under the soil, where it is needed and won’t evaporate. How to water? Well you can use a funnel, insert the garden hose in the bottle neck, or take the sprinkler part off your watering can and insert that in there. Easy peasy.

Lastly, let’s talk about those middle pieces; the “collars”. Well, that’s just what they are: cutworm collars. Cutworms are nasty little devils that like to wreak havoc with you. They come like thieves in the night and chomp off any unsuspecting new seedling, just to have a taste or mess with your head. Their preferences are cabbage, eggplant, peas, and cucumber. But no seedling is without danger. So what do you do? You take those little plastic collars and bury them about 1″ in the soil, surrounding your seedlings. And the opening on the side, the vertical line part, makes it easy to slip them around your seedlings

Cutworm collar on eggplant

Okay, now here’s a modified photo of the dissection of the bottle:

So there you have it friends. Another gardening tip from Aunt Mayme’s Attic!

Like this:

Now, truly, I don’t “farm” purslane ( known to some as watercress, cat’s tongue, portulaca, pig weed) as purslane grows wild. It, rather, “grows” on me–quite literally. Every time I try to grow lettuce or peas, the darn stuff takes over, crowding out my seeds, and placing even more nitrogen in my soil.

Yes, it’s Purslane!

Yes, I’ve tried alternative methods such as growing buckwheat, which is very high in calcium to balance out the nitrogen. But nothing seems to work, and I have to pull it out when it gets large enough; hoping it won’t spread. So far, that hasn’t happened and I still have a bunch of it. So I’ve devised a new method. Announcing. . . . .

The Purslane Cultivation Device.

Device before use

A 5 gallon paint bucket, and a tray that you get when you buy a group of small bedding plants. And an extra bucket. If you have chickens, they will eat the stuff. But my local favorite restaurant wants it for their salads. If it wasn’t so darn good for you, I wouldn’t be interested in it much further; even to write about. But purslane is high in Omega 3’s and is great for vegans. And it’s packed with magnesium too.

Steps:

Find a purslane bed.

Chances are, you already know where there are several of these.

Take your Purslane Cultivation Device with you, as well as your extra bucket

Lay the tray across the top of one bucket.

Pull out the purslane from your beds and place the purslane in the tray.

Gently shake the tray to remove the soil; it should fall into the bucket. Be careful not to shake too hard as the holes on the side of the tray might be great “escape routes”

The extra bucket is to toss the purslane into.

Why not just pull the purslane and not worry sifting it from the soil? Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve worked hard on my veggie beds getting the soil (as in Goldilocks terminology), “Just right” and I’m not about to toss it out!

Purslane Bed with lettuce seeds in there somewhere

Step 4 above

Step 5, purslane is in tray

Step 6, sifted soil in bucket

Manna from the garden

Sharing is Caring

Like this:

Recently I was asked if I would share my desire to recycle, and I felt very honored. The question was obviously presented by someone who cares about the planet. I realized that I take this desire for granted, and then asked myself, “Why don’t I share that here? After all, I am a naturalist and why not, just after my last post?”

Back in the day, I had a relationship with a Native American who taught me, in an intuitive way, how to look at things differently–to question what was before me. And from that experience, I learned to look at the devastation being done to our planet. I learned how to garden organically, how to watch the moon phases for planting, how to have patience, and how to become spiritual without trying. Maybe my lack of funds at the time also instilled in me a different way to think–to repurpose what already was; to “make do”.

Going back further, those times spent in my aunt’s attic contemplating the embroidered pieces that were lovingly made and sitting in a trunk, made me dream of the people who embroidered them and created a desire in me to see them put to use. My aunt wouldn’t have given them up for anyone, and knowing this, I didn’t want anyone else to have their beautiful “lovelies” sitting around, gathering dust. Hence my Etsy shop, Aunt Mayme’s Attic (http://www.etsy.com/shop/AuntMaymesAttic) was born. What better way to improve my love of recycling than to find old pieces–embroidered or otherwise, to sometimes repurpose and sell to others at a low price? What better way to bring back a piece of history and rekindle thoughts of a more simpler time? Kind of like curling up in a big chair with a favorite novel, or Nancy Drew Mystery.

So my desire to recycle came twofold: “What could I do with things that were already in place?” and “What could I do with reducing waste?” Then too, there’s my desire to share with someone, through my Etsy shop, those very things I find special. I use the shop mostly as an outlet for my creativity; it’s certainly not a money making project! But I recycle as much as I can.

I’m one who will wash plastic ziplock bags over and over, until they get so many holes, they are no longer usable. I’ll visit thrift shops and repurpose many things–forks for stakes in my garden, clothing for me, sheets for my sewing projects or for row covers; anything there has a different purpose from the original one..

I like to challenge myself by thinking out of the box with the items I find and have. I grew sunflowers and not only did I feed the birds with the seeds, and composted the remaining heads, but I also used the stalks as supports for my cucumbers. The stalks were a little prickly, but the cukes loved to attach themselves and “see” how far they could climb.

I find old bicycles and use them as trellises for my clematis. My vegetable garden sports an antique headboard.

And the bottom of a glass-topped dining table (the part where the glass was inserted) is used to support pea vines. A beautiful six sided shape and very sturdy.

I like to save those plastic containers you get at the bakery or Walmart to use as mini greenhouses to start my seeds indoors. The Walmart ones are great because they are the ones that the roasted chickens come in. Not only are they high domed, but the bottom has “channels” that drains the water when watering.

I was contacted by Mary Jane’s Farm to discuss my use of old soda bottles in the garden (I was working on a merit badge): You cut them into thirds or fourths if you want to use more of the center portion (the solid lines are where the cuts are, the dotted line is optional);

Bottle with Markings

The top is used as an olla (a Native American watering device),

Bottle Tops as Ollas (buried in ground)

the middle makes a cutworm collar,

Partially buried center section

and the bottom is used as a small pot to grow seeds or turned over in the garden for a mini greenhouse.

Bottle bottoms turned up for mini greenhouses

I use old margarine containers and yogurt cups (if I don’t send them to be remade into toothbrush handles) as covers for plants when I set them out. The world is full of reusable things! Try starting seeds in K-cups, if you want to have some fun.

When I repurpose, not only am I smiling because I know I’m doing something good, but I can feel the earth smiling, and that’s really big to me.

I so much support anyone who is “doing battle with the Big Guns” about saving the planet. “Big Guns” being Corporate America and its waste. I often think of the saying by a great Native American leader that goes something like this: “We do not inherit the Earth; we borrow Her from our children”. I’m not of the camp that says “The earth can heal itself, so we don’t need to worry”—-any organism will die off, if it’s not treated well, and the earth is no exception.

Well, that’s enough for now. My chicken soup is finished processing and I need to remove the jars. (I take chicken parts left over from my organically fed chickens–you know, the “icky” parts–neck, back, etc.– cook them down, and use them for soup. Then I process it all in my pressure canner. Yummy!)